Watch Them Grow

Deer Management

Traditional Deer Management

This strategy is more appropriately termed "mis-management." With traditional deer management, there is no strategy. Characteristics of mis-management are deer numbers at the carrying capacity of the habitat with little or no doe harvest. Hunters that want to maximize the number of deer on a property may think that eliminating doe harvest is the answer, but this approach typically results in habitat damage, poor quality animals, poor buck age structure (bucks rarely exceed 2.5 years of age), late fawning dates, and reduced reproduction. Hunters interested in producing the maximum number of deer for harvest should follow the next harvest strategy, MSY.